In our last article, I went over some sheep information and our plans to try our hand at shearing...
How It Started:
How It's Going:
...we didn't get very far.
We were pretty bummed because we are super motivated and the weather was perfect on the very first day of Spring 2021, our team of supporters were perfect... But, our tools were not.
We initially purchased "all livestock" type clippers but, we quickly discovered that they weren't referring to Icelandic Sheep Wool when they said "all livestock". Oops.
We did have a pair of old (like antique) hand shears, but even after a devoted sharpening effort, they just didn't cut it [haa, haaa, haaaaa].
We need the right tool for the job - lesson (learned? -pretty sure we have learned this on repeat but I digress...).
All in all, it was great practice and frankly when we started clipping, the process was going to be great! Homestead Husband really knew what he was doing and if the clippers had been bigger, it probably would have been a success story.
(Yeah.... clippers were WAY too small)
A lot of this is trial and error, and sometimes we don't get it right. But, the key is to not give up. We will source the right tools, and try again. Like, really soon because suddenly March decided to hit nearly 70°.... unusual for Maine! We don't want the sheep to get too hot and uncomfortable as the weather heats up.
Sheep have been really fun for us and we are interested in pursuing them further. While this past year was all about tremendous growth, this year, we are hoping to focus on maintaining and settling some more. However, in the meantime, our wheels will be turning as we plan for the future of our ranch and what we can produce here, and share in our community.
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